Last Updated on November 11, 2024
Suppose you are considering upscaling your eCommerce business and are searching for an eCommerce virtual assistant. This article explains how to hire one.
The online retail sales achieved in the third quarter of 2022 accounted for 14.8% of total sales in the United States—that volume of sales totals around $251.7 billion. Moreover, in 2021, total retail sales were $1.666.8 billion, with eCommerce sales increasing yearly. This means that businesses that have optimized themselves by adding eCommerce have increased sales and have not faced a slow decline. But before we go on, let’s briefly explain the term eCommerce site.
What Is an eCommerce Business?
Simply put, it is a site used by any company that sells products or services via the Internet. There are primary players, namely, business-to-business sites, of which Shopify is an example, and business-to-consumer sites, with Amazon being the best-known. Then, there are consumer-to-consumer sites, such as eBay.
Many businesses that trade via the Internet have found that using a virtual assistant helps them optimize their online business cost-effectively compared with hiring an on-site employee. But what is a virtual assistant?
What Does a Virtual Assistant Contribute?
Online or virtual assistants can be handy when working remotely for a company or client. Such a VA will perform the administrative, creative, and technical tasks that help a company function properly.
Why Should You Hire a Virtual eCommerce Assistant?
When you began your business, the work was manageable, and you could have done it alone. But as your business has grown, the tasks and responsibilities have also increased.
Also, you are finding it harder, with more and more competitors targeting the same consumers as you—you need to stand out.
However, there are two problems – you don’t have the money to hire a full-time on-site employee, and you lack the skills such as proper SEO knowledge or content-writing skills to keep up with your competitors.
This is where a virtual aide comes in – as they work remotely, they command lower wages, but they have the skills you need to boost your eCommerce sales.
Plus, a virtual team member does not have to work full-time. You could hire a VA only to assist during peak times, such as before and during the holiday season, to ensure that you maintain excellent customer service.
After that, you can scale down, thus saving you money. But where do you find an eCommerce virtual assistant to help you grow your business?
How to Hire an eCommerce Virtual Assistant?
You can hire a freelancer or approach an agency to find an assistant.
If you go the freelance route, you must go online to various sites posting adverts for the role you want to fill and then do the recruitment process yourself. That would involve checking references, conducting interviews, conducting tests, and viewing the results if needed.
This can be time-consuming, and the primary goal of hiring a virtual assistant is to reduce your stress and time spent on tasks that distract you from your core work. Also, managing them can be difficult once you have hired a freelancer. If the relationship fails, you will need to restart the whole process.
An alternative is to go through an agency. This approach is superior and quicker. An agency will match a VA to a client’s requirements, handling the screening interviews and reference checking.
The result is that only around 2% of all applications will remain—that is, the best people who have applied. If anything goes wrong, the agency will intervene and resolve any staffing problem for you.
This way, you can stay focused on your work and not on the functioning of an HR department, keeping your overheads low.
What Does a Virtual Online Assistant Do?
The type of tasks that you can outsource to virtual or online assistants are:
- Provide exceptional customer service
- The online store development or design
- Graphic design
- Order processing
- Product sourcing and research
- Orders and inventory management
- Product listings
- Videography
- Social media posting
- Responding to comments on social media
- Posting and optimizing ads.
If you go through an agency, the agency vets candidates based on the criteria you have provided, thus ensuring that you will get what you want: your tasks will be done correctly and on time.
It would be best to decide on critical lessons you want your VA to manage – programming, graphic design, SEO, blogging, customer service, or Facebook marketing.
How Do I Monitor My Virtual Assistant?
A big question you must ask is how you manage a virtual assistant. Proper communication is crucial when hiring an online aide and will develop trust between you and your employee.
In addition, there are tools available to make the process easier and more effective. These tools include project management tools, such as Trello ( free to use), Tauria for communicating without any data being leaked, and tracking software that you can use to track how many hours a VA has worked.
In addition, you could also use Google Drive and Dropbox to share files.
A Final Word: How to Hire an eCommerce Virtual Assistant
Our team at Aristo Sourcing has been assisting clients since 2014. We know how to source the best people to fill positions. More so, with 9 out of 10 clients coming from word-of-mouth, we can confidently state that we are doing something right.
If you are a business owner and want to book a private one-on-one chat, book a call now. We are here to help you upscale and will advise you throughout your process.
Many of our clients have long-lasting relationships with their VAs. Thus, they have benefited from the relationship that has assisted them in growing their businesses faster without compromising on quality.
3 Key Takeaways
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Ecommerce is a growing industry, and businesses adopting it have seen success. The article cites statistics showing the increasing dominance of ecommerce sales.
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Hiring a VA can be a cost-effective way for ecommerce businesses to manage tasks and stay competitive. VAs can handle various tasks, including customer service, design, order processing, and social media management. This allows business owners to focus on core activities without hiring a full-time employee.
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Using an agency to find a VA is more efficient than searching for freelancers. Agencies pre-screen candidates and ensure they have the necessary skills. They also handle any issues that may arise, saving the business owner time and stress.